Today I tried out my new, “Active Tunes i-RIDE Bicycle Stereo Speaker System.” It’s somewhat of a disappointment.

When riding close to home I like to listen to audio books or (when I used to be able to get them through Netlibrary) Pimsleur language courses. I use an earphone in my right ear, only. I snip off the left earphone, leaving that ear for traffic. I’ve tried earbuds, too, also minus the left one, but I like the earphone that hangs from my ear better.

It works pretty well for the spoken word. Even on quiet roads there is enough road noise that I sometimes have trouble making out sounds in another language. I make up that deficiency by listening again while taking a quiet soak in the tub at home. But usually it works OK while riding.

My right ear is unusual in that I have some hearing loss in mid-frequencies. Low and high frequencies are pretty good. It has been that way for many years — maybe all my life, for all I know. That may or may not have anything to do with why I sometimes have trouble telling “m” from “n” sounds in some languages, especially when listening while riding or driving. And it may have something to do with why I don’t care to listen to music with that earphone. Or it could just be that it’s a cheap earphone.

I’ve long wanted a good, handlebar-mounted speaker. I especially wanted one after discovering this music on YouTube by the groups Mashina Vremeni i Voskresenye (Time Machine and Sunday). I like a lot of those songs, and for some of them, the lyrics are also posted. Those can be used for learning Russian.

I tried it out today. Here’s what’s disappointing about it:

• It doesn’t seem very sturdily constructed.
• It’s held in its mount by a friction fit. What about rought roads? There is a hokey piece of velcro to strap it down if the ride is rough, but it seems to be pretty much an afterthought.
• The springs holding the batteries (3 AAA ones) in place aren’t very strong, meaning the batteries don’t make contact with the metal in the lid very well. The lid is not strong enough to press back very hard on the batteries to make a firm contact. That’s why I have a piece of electrical tape holding it down. But even that didn’t always work. If the springs were stronger, I think the lid would need to be stronger, too. I don’t think this device was field tested.
• The on-off switch doesn’t give any indication as to which is off and which is on. Nor is there an indicator light.
• It all seems pretty flimsy. I doubt it will last long.

The orange thing is my MP3 player, a Motorola M25. It’s in its 3rd year — and looks a lot grungier in real life than on this photo. But it’s holding up well. I do not expect three years out of the speakers.

My Arkel handlebar bag is now in its 5th season of use every day, winter and summer, bicycling or not. The top is getting somewhat threadbare, but it’ll last this season OK.

The speakers also can be mounted as in this J&R ad. Maybe in that position it wouldn’t matter so much that the springs aren’t strong enough to push up on the batteries. But on my Minoura Swinggrip Handlebar Mount, it seems to matter a lot.

Even if it worked well, I’m not sure I like going down the road playing music well enough for everyone else to hear. Not that this one can put out a lot of volume, but that part seems adequate for my purpose. I’m not sure what it sounds like from the front yards I’m riding past.

When I’m touring in a new place, none of this matters. It’s mostly for rides near home. When I’m in new or seldom-traveled places, I’m too busy trying to take in all the features of the terrain. I’ve found that I very seldom care to listen to my MP3 player then, unless it’s on a relatively boring, heavily travelled road, in which case the traffic usually isn’t compatible with listening, anyway.

This photo from a June 2007 bike outing is here so I can show how I mount the “Ultra Light Bike Mirror” on my handlebars.

I don’t know if I’ll do any solo touring this year or not, but I haven’t done a lot in past years, either. This photo is from a long-weekend ride to Grand Rapids, Ohio in July 2003. It’s at a private campground west of Hillsdale, and shows the cooking gear I was using at the time. I liked being able to camp on the high, relatively open site at this campground, but this tenting area has since been made into more space for RV campers.